


Winds of Change

by esteoflorien



Series: Little Moments: Downton Abbey Drabbles and Challenge Ficlets [1]
Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-10
Updated: 2013-11-10
Packaged: 2018-01-01 02:33:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1039320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esteoflorien/pseuds/esteoflorien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When she spies her for the first time in years, her breath catches in the back of her throat. She had heard, via Baxter, that rumors were circulating amongst the servants that Sarah O’Brien had returned to Yorkshire and so it appeared that she had.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winds of Change

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cassanabaratheon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassanabaratheon/gifts).



> Lina prompted: Sarah & Cora, breathe again.

When she spies her for the first time in years, her breath catches in the back of her throat. She had heard, via Baxter, that rumors were circulating amongst the servants that Sarah O’Brien had returned to Yorkshire and so it appeared that she had.

She is standing before a little shop in town, one she’d simply _had_ to see for herself, once she’d caught wind of its possible existence. There’s no sign out front – not yet – but from what she can see through the glass, its proprietor is hard at work. O’Brien is bent over some boxes, lifting out bolts of fabric and carrying them over to a work table on the other side of the room. She smoothes them with a careful, lingering touch that Cora remembers perfectly well, as if it was just yesterday that she had felt Sarah’s hand at her back.

To her surprise, the door gives way as she presses on it.

“I’m sorry,” O’Brien says automatically, without looking up from her work. “I’ve not yet opened.”

“Good afternoon, Miss O’Brien,”  she says, letting the door close behind her.

“My lady!” O’Brien exclaims. She fumbles with the bolt of fabric and makes an attempt at a curtsey.

“There’s no need,” Cora replies. “We’re not at Downton. It’s good to see you again.”

O’Brien is clearly flummoxed by her appearance, but she musters a polite reply.

They stand in silence, both of them glancing around the room. _How odd,_ Cora thinks, _to have nothing at all to say to a woman who was by my side for almost twenty years._

“India agreed with you,” she finally says, when the silence has become too uncomfortable. “And you have done well for yourself.”

“Yes, my lady,” she says. “I was compensated somewhat differently for my work, because we went abroad.”

Cora glances around the little shop. So she must have been. To her surprise, it bothers her that it was Susan Flintshire who gave O’Brien the means to set herself up like this.

“I hadn’t expected to see you again, except perhaps at Lady Flintshire’s.”

“I’d always planned to return,” O’Brien returns, almost immediately.

“But not to Downton?”

“Not to Downton, no,” O’Brien says, with a funny inflection in her voice that Cora hopes is resignation. “But I did come back.”

“So you did. And it’s good to see you again.”

“It is,” O’Brien replies. “I hope you’ll return once the shop is properly opened.” It occurs to Cora that this is the first time that she and O’Brien have spoken on territory that didn’t belong to the Crawleys. _She_ is the guest here, and it is up to O’Brien, in this modern world, who decides who may enter and how long she may stay, and she, Cora Crawley, is being dismissed.

“Well, I shan’t keep you from your work,” she says. “I look forward to returning when all is ready. I hope you’ll let me know when it is.”

O’Brien smiles. “You will be the first to know, my lady,” she says, and opens the door for her.

Cora makes her way slowly down the street, unsettled by the encounter – by O’Brien’s return, by the change between them, by a confusing sense of disappointment at it all. She glances behind her to find O’Brien watching her from the window, and gives a little wave. After a moment, O’Brien returns it, and Cora finds herself filled with warmth and an indefinable sensation of anticipation for what lies ahead.


End file.
